Bristol blue glass

[3] Lazarus and Isaac Jacobs were the most famous makers of Bristol blue glass in the 1780s.

In 1774, at the age of seventeen, Isaac joined his father's glass cutting firm at 108 Temple Street, Bristol, and launched Bristol Blue glass as a national brand, using the cobalt oxide Cookworthy imported.

[5] Bristol’s glass makers were invited to demonstrate their skills at the Great Exhibition of 1851, opened by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

[6] Around 1970 Thomas Webb & Sons of Stourbridge made a range of about ten Bristol blue glass shapes, but had to stop as they found cobalt dust was contaminating their lead crystal.

At the request of John Stott, the managing director of Thomas Webb (who closed down in 1990), Nazeing Glass of Broxbourne, Herts, supplied the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery Shop with a range of some twenty glass shapes, all based on 18th century inspired designs, from 1975 until 1990.